Chuck Burton/Associated PressTyler Hansbrough says he'd love to prove people wrong in the NBA, just like he did in college.

He dazzled them, all right. Everyone in the organization was blown away by Tyler Hansbrough's athleticism, his midrange touch, his eagerness to please, and his trademark high-rev motor. Basically, the kind of kid whose energy you have to match, or you risk getting embarrassed.

And now we expect them to discount all of that, and go for someone who plays a different position, such as Terrence Williams or Gerald Henderson.

No, it's not anything that we've been told. We're looking at it pragmatically: Yes, they are terribly weak at the power forward position, and maybe the Tarheels' live wire improves them there - almost anyone would, at this point.

But think about it: The Nets are already paying four guys - Ryan, Yi, Eddie, Sean - to play that position. And maybe none of those four guys can crack the rotation on a good team. That doesn't mean the Nets are guaranteed to improve it by adding a rookie. It means they are probably scared witless to make another mistake with that position, and add a fifth contract that they'll be locked into for three years.

We don't think they have the guts to consider that.

They'd rather work feverishly to turn Yi or Ryan into starting-quality players, cross their fingers, and then take their slings and arrows for their failure to develop those guys. They have to hit in this draft - hit big, if possible - and they have to go for the surest thing, which most people think is either T-Will or Gerald.

Anyway, Psycho T was pleased with himself Tuesday, but he seems to be the kind of kid who is pleased whenever he can make somebody bleed. And the first thing you noticed when you walked into the gym today was that Henderson had a tissue jammed into one nostril.

Headley, always sensitive to 'tude, thought the kid actually came across as a grump, but that's probably a good thing. The Nets have enough people who think the 4 is a finesse position.

"People have doubted me my whole career. Whatever. I enjoy it," Hansbrough snapped. "I like to win national championships. I played in college for four years because I loved it. But I'm ready to take it to the next stage and prove some more people wrong. No one thought I was going to be a good college basketball player, but I ended up the all-time leading scorer in ACC history, national champs. So whatever."

Scoring. That would be a nice thing to have at the four-spot. If you're not sure how his game would translate, or where his points would come from on this level, the GM was asked about it:

"He's going to be able to score 15 or 16, midrange shots, he'll score more from there," Kiki Vandeweghe said. "He'll also obviously (score on) hustle plays. He's got a nice postup game, so against certain players he'll be able to do that too.

"We sort of knew he was more athletic than he seems. He showed that in Chicago. You watch him closely in college and see he can jump, he can run. He's quick. And just because he plays so hard, that gets discounted a little bit."

Anyway, we're sticking with this short list, assuming Jonny Flynn won't be there: T-Will, Henderson, Hansbrough, and the best point available - Jennings, Lawson or Holiday. Call it informed speculation.

Speaking of which. . . .

It's time for complete candor here, and we're not sure whether Mr. Thorn is capable of supplying it out of fear that you'll tune out entirely this summer.

But here goes: It's a jungle out there, and even the carnivores are starving. We'd be shocked if the Nets invest more than just a few bucks (think league minimum for a 13th man) after the free agent market opens next week, and we're talking fall-through-the-cracks September guys.

Think times aren't so tough?

Then maybe you haven't heard the Nets are no longer going to scout opponents.

You heard right: Paul Cormier, who was absurdly overqualified to begin with, was let go last week, because the Nets (and Spurs....and Wizards) are no longer going to do any advance scouting. They'll rely on some kind of networking arrangement, with regional scouts who can punch in the play calls and sync it with video and send it along to the staff a day or two before they play Team X.

Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. Some people think it will save money. Others think it's idiotic.

But that's just the start of things. Throughout the league, GMs are finding religion (you had to hear the guff Ernie Grunfeld put up with at the last Board of Governors meeting, for giving Flip Saunders 4/18M), and recognizing that their head coaches are so overpaid, there's nothing left in the budget for a full staff.

Dave Cowens is walking away from Mike Curry's staff in Detroit, and they're saying the Pistons may try to get by with only two or three assistant coaches. The Nets would suffer the same fate, but their four assistant coaches have agreed to take huge pay cuts.

Unfair? Who's to say? We're all going through it, obviously. And it's not nearly as Draconian as the methods used on the other side of the organization. Put it this way: Last September 1, the Nets employed 120 people. Today, they employ 80. And only a handful of those people - maybe three or four people -- were from the basketball ops side.

Bottom line: Regardless of what Thorn says in the next few weeks, he's no longer at liberty to inflate the payroll - perhaps not even if some Grand Slam S&T that drops in his lap.

Is it enough to make The Boss re-think how much longer he wants to stay attached to a dead-end franchise that has its own dark corner of a frazzled industry?

Well....no. He wants to see it through, and we're hearing he's close to signing an extension that will keep him around until at least 2011.

As you know by now, Flynn didn't work out Tuesday - and we can't understand why anyone expected him to, since he's obviously going to be a top-10 pick, with a likely betrothal with Milwaukee.

Williams, meanwhile, was home in Seattle resting an (alleged) ankle injury. There was no reason for Terrence to work out either, especially since he can only go down from here after jumping about 10 places during the tryout phase.